Dario Franchitti checks out the damage to his car after he slammed into a guard rail at Barber on Thursday. The test session was delayed for about an hour as the guard rail was repaired. (The Birmingham News / Doug Demmons)The driver who wins the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama may not be the one with the fastest lap times as much as the driver who makes the fewest mistakes.

That’s one of the lessons learned after two days of preseason testing Thursday -- Barber Motorsports Park leaves very little room for error.

“It’s a track that’s very technical and it’s easy to make a mistake,” said Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing and the 2008 series champion.

Mistakes may provide just as many opportunities for passing during the race as the hairpin turn known as Charlotte’s Web, where most of the passing occurs in other series that race at Barber.

“If the guy in front of you is going to make a mistake, you’re going to get him,” Dixon said. “This track definitely welcomes people to make mistakes. It’s not as easy as some of the other courses that we go to.”

Mistakes during the test session were costly to at least two drivers -- Dario Franchitti and Raphael Matos -- both of whom ran off the course and severely damaged their cars.

“You saw Dario made a little mistake and you see what can happen,” said Penske driver Will Power, who turned in the fastest time of the session. “That’s so easily done. Just touch a curb the wrong way and you end up in the wall.”

Dixon turned in the fourth fastest time on Thursday in a session delayed until noon because of frigid track temperatures in the morning.

But Dixon’s time in fourth was a mere tenth of a second behind the 1 minute, 9.8724 seconds it took Power to complete a lap around the 2.38-mile track.

From Power back to Hideki Mutoh at ninth fastest only half a second separated the drivers. Ryan Briscoe was third, followed by Dixon, rookie Takuma Sato, Mike Conway, Justin Wilson, Marco Andretti, Mutoh and rookie Mario Romancini to round out the top 10.

Danica Patrick was 17th fastest out of 20 drivers.

“The competition is obviously very tough and very close,” Dixon said.

And that will make it extremely tough to come from the back of the field and end up with a good finish, Dixon said.

“Qualifying is going to be extremely tough,” he said. “You definitely wouldn’t want to be further than fifth back. You could still make a run as far as trying to do strategy with saving a bit of fuel with lifting and things like that. There will be an emphasis like much of the road courses to qualify up front.”

Another factor that should make a difference in the race will be tire management, especially when and for how long to use the so-called red tires, the softer tires with red sidewalls that Indy requires teams to use at some point during a road course race in order to enhance passing.

Teams did not get a chance to use the red tires this week. And that might have been by design, Power said.

“I think you just make it more interesting if you just turn up and have to run them straight up for the first time in qualifying,” he said.

From there it will be a question of how quickly the tires wear out. The Barber surface is quite smooth, but the long corners could wear out the soft tires quickly, Power said.

In the final analysis, he said, the April 11 Indy race likely won’t be the no-passing parade of cars that some have feared.

“People might be surprised at the race here,” he said. “More action than you think.”

The test session concludes Friday with a one-day practice for drivers in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, IndyCar’s development series.